NISAR clears on orbit checks and readies for science data flow
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 01, 2025

After its July 30 launch, the NASA-ISRO NISAR radar mission cleared preliminary health checks and on Aug 15 unfurled its 39-foot 12-meter reflector, then powered up both L-band and S-band SARs. Orbit raising toward a 464-mile 747-kilometer mean altitude began Aug 26, with science-quality images expected within weeks. Full science begins about 90 days after launch.

he first dual-SAR mission, NISAR's 24-centimeter L-band maps motion, biomass, and soil moisture beneath forest canopies, while its 10-centimeter S-band tracks finer vegetation and snow moisture. Both operate day or night through clouds, revisiting most land and ice twice each 12 days and resolving sub-inch crustal shifts key to earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides.

The partnership spans NASA and ISRO: ISRO's Space Applications Centre supplied S-band SAR, U R Rao Satellite Centre the bus, launch was from Satish Dhawan, and ISTRAC oversees deployments and operations. JPL provided the L-band SAR, reflector, boom, high-rate science communications, solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem; Goddard's Near Space Network receives L-band data.

Related Links
NASA-ISRO
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application